Tag: Katsuhiro Harada

Turns out missing Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada just had a bit of the sniffles as he confirmed on Twitter earlier today. He’s a bit concerned his week off turned into a news fiasco though, but you can rest assured he’s still going to E3. And since we’re all a bit sceptical these days, Harada even posted a picture of himself as proof to his fans that he’s alive and well. You can see the Twitter message he posted below:

“I just finished up the master version, and I had a cold and a fever so I was home drinking tequila and getting some work done. Ono got a new car late last month so I took it for a test drive, and cleared some games I had piled up (Crysis 3, Bioshock, Metro) so I ignored calls from the office. I was busy. Then Grid 2 came out while work was piling up, people were treating me like I was missing or something. I’m fine, and back to work and I’ll be at E3, so don’t worry.”

Katsuhiro Harada, a Namco Bandai Games producer who is best known for the Tekken series, is reportedly missing. According to a tweet that was supposedly sent out by the Tekken Project support team, Harada has been missing from office for a week so far. The team says it’s still searching for him. If he really is missing, we hope that Harada is found safe and sound. The tweet sent out by the team – via Harada’s Twitter account – can be read below:

*This is TEKKEN Project support team*Mr.Harada has been missing from office since a week ago. We are still searching for him. Thanks.

Update from the Tekken team: There appear to be some news articles worrying for Harada-san’s safety. However, we were able to confirm he has been logged into Steam daily, so we believe he is OK, but just has not shown up for work.

Namco Bandai Games’ Katsuhiro Harada, who is also the producer of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, is pushing for the localization of Project X Zone, which is the first crossover game among Namco Bandai Games, Capcom and Sega. On his Twitter account, Harada says he “proposed localization of Project X Zone,” and if he continues pushing for it, his suggestion will be recognized and considered.

Project X Zone will launch exclusively for Nintendo 3DS in Japan on October 11th.

“I think Nintendo chose us just because Smash Brothers is a fighting game. We have over 17 years of continuously developing titles in our franchise [Tekken], I think they felt we were a choice for that.”

“Also, we’ve continually developed a very good relationship with Nintendo. Maybe not necessarily in the public spotlight but kind of behind the scenes. We have established a very good working relationship with them. Not just Nintendo, but as a company, we have a very good relationship with Sakurai-san at Sora as well. I think that we are in very good position to make a great game for the Smash Brothers series.”

Tekken director Katsuhiro Haradaclaims that consumers are no longer dedicated to one platform and console makers can no longer control the way people game. Nowadays, there are many platforms that gamers can choose from to play on. Harada thinks that “it would be interesting if Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo got together just to make one console,” and it makes him “very happy to think about all the possibilities that could occur because of that.”

Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada was asked about whether Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for Wii U will have exclusive modes that are not included in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. Harada claims that the Wii U version will have features that are more convenient because players can control them directly from the Wii U GamePad’s interface.

According to Harada, while the overall game mechanics will remain the same, some “Nintendo-like” modes will be included in the Wii U version. For example, like in the picture above, Heihachi Mishima ate a mega mushroom, which was introduced in New Super Mario Bros., and got bigger.

Will the Wii-U version have any distinctly different modes to the 360 and PS3 versions?

“Well, because of the controller, obviously there are going to be a few features that are more convenient because you can control them directly from the interface. But it’s not like the overall game mechanics are going to change that drastically. There are going to be some modes that will be interesting, because they are very Nintendo like. Some of this was shown at E3, where a mushroom drops down and Heihachi eats it and gets bigger. You know Nintendo fans hearing and seeing that just exploded with excitement. The things that we can do because it is Nintendo are things people will be very excited about, but we can’t go into it any further. That being said though, a lot of the online modes and customisation on the 360 and PS3 will be geared towards the core audience a little bit more.”

It was reported yesterday that Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada said that using two screens for Wii U fighting games can be distracting. Earlier today, Harada claimed that he did not say ‘distracting’ but instead said the word ‘difficult’ when referring to the Wii U GamePad and its connectivity with the TV screen. Below is Harada’s revised quote.

“Looking at the small screen [Wii U GamePad] and the big [TV] screen at the same time is pretty difficult for a fighting game. So we’re thinking of making it useful as a way of having shortcuts.”

“Or, by making progressing through the game more convenient. Or by playing alone on the GamePad screen.”